<~> Chapter 188I spent a while longer in the ba with Tenna hashing out the details of the on she pnned on making me as payment. We decided to go with a simple longsword simir to the one I was using now. The bes of Mithril as a on material were that it was very light and ducted magic well. It would be as light as a rapier but as sturdy as a longsword, it was also perfect for a [Magian] like myself that could el magic through my on. Before I left the ba she quickly wrote me a letter to the guild indig the successful delivery. I would have to e ba two days to collect my neon, she wao turn it over fast to skirt suspi.

  When I had cast [Zone of Silenbsp;earlier I had gained a new level in Illusion Magic.

  [Illusion Magic has increased from level 4 to level 5][Learned Illusion Magic Spell Echo]

  [Echo - Illusion Magic Spell]Create an illusionary sound mimig another sound you have heard before. Maximum Volume is affected by Magic Force. Dire and trol over the targets of this sound are affected by Magitrol.

  I smiled as I read over the spell. It's been a while since I've learned a new spell and the first time I'd learned another illusion magic spell. It seems to be another sound-based spell, I wonder if that was because the only illusiohat I frequently use is [Zone of Silence]. This spell isn't directly offe I could see it being useful with clever application. Unless I could k up the volume to an absurd level using my Magic Forbsp;That would require some testing though.

  My friends save for Bel were lined up in the shop against one wall looking very professional. I frowned a little as I looked at how they were ag. It was to be expected I guess but it still grated on me a bit. I kind of expected them to wander around and look at the wares, hopefully they finished and were just waiting for me.

  "Did anyone find anything you need or want?" I asked.

  Torien nodded and stepped forward. "I wao buy some arrowheads. The ohey have here are good quality but I'd have to get the materials to put them together myself Mis- um... Lily." It felt really weird to be called Lily but I supposed it was better than hearing her fall into the habit of using the title she was about to call me. I wasn't mad but it still made me feel icky.

  I sighed. "That's fine. Anyone else? Silva?" I asked looking over at her.

  She shook her head. "I'm happy with the ons I have at the moment."

  "Alright." I went up to the ter and paid for the arrowheads. The bundle of fifty was only fifty silver so I didn't have any issue with the purchase. They came out to a silver per arrowhead which sounded like a good price. The dog boy looked a bit nervous as he ted the s and didn't say anything until he finished giving the room an awkward atmosphere.

  "I've firmed the amount, fifty silver ma'am. Thank you for your purchase." He slid over the ed bundle of cloth that held the arrowheads and I ha to Mimi to hold onto.

  As much as my versation in the ba of the smithy excited me, the awkwardness of my friends ag like sves annoyed me. I was happy to leave the shop, but the fight that was going ht outside the door wasn't what I expected to walk out to. A fat man wearing high-css clothes was lying on the ground bloodied and unscious while two guards were fighting with three demi-beastfolk sves that had bruised knuckles.

  The guards hadn't drawn their o but the level differeweewo groups in to the eye. They were trying to subdue the sves without hurting them but the sves were still futilely trying to fight the guards. Even if Bel wao step in ahe man on the ground he was lying a little too close to where the group of five were fighting so that didn't seem like a good idea right now.

  Despite the guards being signifitly strohan the sves, two dogkin and a catkin, they were slippery and didn't look like they were going to give up despite the strength disparity. Then the crowd started to get involved. Beastfolk and other sves from the crowd started throwing stuff at the guards while they were trying to subdue them and when the beastfolk sves finally turo run the crowd got in the guards' way and stopped them from chasing. The crowd was starting to get out of trol and it was like a full-blown riot was starting to fht in front of us.

  A Tamin padin and two priests suddenly came up to the se and that's when things really got bad. The anger of the crowd shifted from the guards to the Tamin adherents. A rge stone sailed through the air and hit the padin square on the helmet. He just shook it off and walked through the crowd to grab the offending person by the neck before throwing him to the ground. Several people tried to jump in and try and stop the padin but he just spped them away with the ease of his greater strength.

  I stepped forward but Silva put a hand on my shoulder and pulled me back. "It's better if we don't get involved. He shouldn't have thrown that stone."

  By now the unsan on the ground had been trampled to death uhe crowd that was now openly fighting with the padin and the priests. While the padin was a juggernaut the priests didn't fare quite as well and the crowd started to swarm them while the padin was tunnel visioning on the guy who had throwo him. The guards tried to intervene and stop the padin from killing the guy but the padin just attacked the guards like they were among the bystanders.

  The already loud city was r in anger now, screams, threats, and insults were being hurled around and the crowd only grew more dangerous. Like a spreading disease, the crowd started attag others in the area or destroying stuff nearby. Behind us, I heard the bar on the door to the smithy slide shut as the riot started to go full bore.

  "Lil-y we o get out of here!" Torien ulling on my sleeve to leave so I numbly nodded and followed her away.

  There were several moments where it looked like someone was going to attack us only to stop iracks ohey realized how strong we were. None of us were an easy target and Silva was now openly brandishing her spear. The crowd started to move around us a us through as we left the area. A dozen guards ran by, toward the pce the fight had broken out. A few of them gave us a g since we were leaving and there were plenty of other problems they didn't look at us twice.

  "Things are worse than I thought here," Torien mumbled.

  "I've never seen so many people start fighting like that," Bel replied.

  Man shook her head. "I've never heard of a riot breaking out in the capital, much less sves attag their owners like that. Usually, the colrs prevent that kind of thing."

  "Automatically?" I asked.

  "N-no. I suppose not. Most sves just usually have standing orders not to attack others and especially their owners," Man replied.

  Silva gripped her spear and looked around a er carefully. "It doesn't help that the guards don't seem to be on the same page as the Tamin adherents. By the time we left, they were practically fighting each other too."

  "I didn't detey demonic miasma either. That riot looked like it started anically," I added.

  "I wouldn't be so sure," Silva said shaking her head. "Those sves were ag strangely. They looked almost feral to me."

  I furrowed my brows. "Really? I didn't notiything like that."

  "It was the way they were fighting. Their knuckles were bruised but they were sshing at the guards with their cws. They kept jumping at the guards as if they would be able to ssh through their armor. No, something was wrong. They weren't ag normal."

  I frowned. "I didn't notiything like that but maybe you're right. What would that mean then? Some kind of magic was influeng them?"

  Silva grunted and directed us toward an alley. "I don't know. I'm just saying we shouldn't dist that someone might be involved." Silva looked around the er. "Shit. It's safe to say your meeting with the guard captain isn't happening. I don't think it would be wise trying to go back to the inn right her."

  Lines of guards were marg dowreet trying to separate the people who were fighting and the ones just trying to run away. More than one of the 'runners' took the opportunity to attack a guard from the side before being pummeled by uards.

  As we walked through the city avoiding even more angry crowds that had sprung up in different pces, the guards were trying to get things bader trol. It seems like there were pockets of the city that were just as bad as the one we were at earlier. Groups of people were fighting guards, Tamin adherents, or even just rich-looking people in big crowds. While we were right where one of the fights started, it wasn't the only fight that started at around the same time.

  "Yeah, there's no way we're going to make that meeting and I 't even imagirying to get back through the bazaar right now. The guard captain will probably be too busy for it right now anyway. We should go somewhere else a off the street," Silva said.

  "I hope Raya and Sibyl are okay," Man said nervously.

  "Where do you suggest, Silva?" I asked.

  She was quiet as she waited froup of guards to pass by. "Either the adventurer's guild or the Great Library. You have busihere and both will be well protected. The Library is the closer of the two."

  "Let's go to the Library then. The idea of being around other adventurers right now seems like a w prospect."

  Silva nodded. "Sure. I don't think you o worry about adventurers being involved though. Things would already be a whole lot worse if trained fighters and monster hunters were part of this riot too."

  We made our way through the streets avoiding the crowds of angry people as best we could. The few times people got close to us, Mimi, Silva, or I were able to knock them away without ating hurt. The worst part was the small projectiles that hit us from time to time but Bel's healing and my new barrier spell was able to keep the worst of it from impag us much.

  "This looks coordinated," Torien said after a while. "This looks like an attaot an anic riot. It popped up in too many different pces at once."

  Silva looked over at Torien with a serious look on her face. "I think it's both. I was talking to your aunt this m. There has been building animosity around svery iy ever since Baron Morrister died. But Man's right, the colrs should stop any widespread sve rebellion in its tracks. I think something is suppressing the colrs and taking advantage of the situation."

  "Amphores?" I asked.

  She shrugged. "Could be. Hard to say. There are dozens of groups that could be from an unruly mob of sves wreg the town."

  I g Man's colr. "Would whatever's causing the colrs to be suppressed allow us to remove all of your colrs?"

  Silva chuckled. "No, unfortunately not. By suppression, I mean something is stopping the colrs from reag to orders. They're still magically sealed on. e on, this way."

  There was a break in the crowd that allowed us to walk deeper into the city toward the giant spire in front of us. The Great Library of Sorsette really did live up to the grandeur of the name. From the outside, it looked like a giant round tower that rose into the sky like a skyscraper. My guess was that it was at least eighty floors tall but that estimate only held true if the floors were roughly te per floor like I was used to.

  The structure looked like it was made from a single piece of polished white stone, if it was made with from multiple ks the outside fa?ade had been smoothed over. The shiny surface reflected the sun onte parts of the city and cast a shadow on other parts like a gigantidial. Rounded panes of gss or maybe transparent rock were i into the spire about every twenty feet.

  Surrounding the base of the spire were dozens of guards wearing purple ceremonial robes over their armor. Few rioters had goo this part of the city and none had approached the massive spire he ter of town. As we got closer one of the guards waved over a tall human woman.

  I got a better look at her once she walked up to the ring of purple-cd guards. She had dark bck hair that trasted well against her fair skin and striking blue eyes. Like the guards, she wore long purple robes, though hers made her look more like a mage or a priest. She was beautiful, one of the first women who rivaled the perfect looks of the succubi, that thought alo me on edge. Over the left shoulder of her robes, she wore a long with many oral keys dangling from it, the accessory almost looked like jewelry but it seemed funal as well.

  She smiled at us. "Wele Lilith and friends. We've been expeg you. Wele to the Great Library of Sorsette."

  Saine

  Hello! Uh oh, things are starting to get real! Looks like moving around the capital isn't going to be as straightforward as first thought. Now we're here in the Library of Sorsette a bit ahead of schedule, I'm excited to see all of your reas to the feters! Thanks for reading!

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